Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Uniform / The Body - Mental Wounds Not Healing (2018)

With an industrial metal Uniform covering the electronic drone Body, this collaborative duo made such an experimental offering to please the underground metal masses in Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back. But have you heard what they made a year prior? It's shorter but much darker...

The Body's lyrical themes morbidly touch upon guns, death, and suicide. The title of their album from that year, I Have Fought Against It but I Can't Any Longer, was taken from the note 20th Century writer Virginia Woolf wrote before drowning herself in a raging river. You might think this collaboration album's title, Mental Wounds Not Healing, is also dark, but it comes from Ozzy Osbourne's hit "Crazy Train". For the album itself, Uniform and the Body open up a soundtrack to a world of distress beyond imagination.

"Dead River" already has distorted screaming flowing through an electronic beat. Guitars mostly consist of faint feedback. Then we have the intense "The Curse of Eternal Life", continuing the electronic beat usage. Chip King's "tortured rooster" screams sound more mechanical in this album, though there are the snarls of Michael Berdan that I prefer. "Come and See" shows the vocal duo uniting greatly with the drumming of Lee Buford and the guitarwork of Ben Greenberg. "The Boy With Death in His Eyes" is filled with devastating distress, as the duo continue their thunderous attack. It's like a true stormy voyage while lost at sea.

"In My Skin" is slower with some post-ish guitar. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is just straight-up noise and pain. Even the album's average song length of 4 minutes can go on for eternity. Many listeners might want out, but I'm experienced enough to stay in and let it infect my mind. The more anthemic "Empty Comforts" once again has dreamy guitars, and it seems to end the album as more of a dream than the nightmarishly good album it was.

Nothing is ever bright in Mental Wounds Not Healing, just drone-ish industrial metal darkness and noise. I don't think it's as masterful as their other collaboration album though. Plus there are heavier bands I've listened to that I enjoy. But this is pure darkness. Darker than anything I've experienced in my existence....

Favorites: "Come and See", "The Boy With Death in His Eyes", "Empty Darkness"